Loneliness
by dbc357
Summary: Friendship fluff. Naruto is having a bad dream and Sasuke is brooding. Despite being rivals, thanks to each other, the boys discover they are not as lonely as they thought they were.


**Loneliness**

Naruto was twisting and turning violently in his sleep. It was not a pleasant dream he was having. He was a little boy again. The villagers had their backs turned to him, saying hurtful things about him behind his back, shunning him.

_Demon! _

_Everyone who died – it's all your fault!_

_Monster! _

_Tears were rolling down the little boy's cheeks. _

Sasuke growled. He couldn't sleep. The fact that the idiot he shared a room with at the moment wouldn't stay still didn't help. Then there was the rain that was pounding loudly against the window Add that his brother's words were ringing in his ears.

_Foolish little brother, if you wish to kill me, hate me, detest me. And yet survive in an unsightly way. Run, run and cling to life, and when you have the same eyes as mine, come to me. _

Sasuke cursed to himself and turned over, positioned on his side.

Sasuke and Naruto had been sent away on a mission in a neighboring village that was pretty far away so they had to stay the night somewhere on the way. They had found a little in just in time to escape the heavy rain. There had only been one room left and Sasuke was very thankful they had managed to find a room with two beds. Naruto was moving around a lot in his restless sleep. The sheets were a mess and spread out randomly all over the bed. Sasuke scowled. Naruto wasn't having nightmare, was he? He hoped that wasn't the case. His own bad dreams demanded his attention.

Naruto let out an irritated and angry noise and flung his arm out, as if frustrated over something. The movement made him flip from his back onto his stomach. Sasuke growled. He had had enough of this already.

He got to his feet and stomped over to the other bed. Sasuke shivered at the chill the rain had caused in the room. He was about to brutally wake the sleeping blonde, but something stopped him. The moonlight shining in from the window made something on Naruto's cheeks glimmer. It was tears. Sasuke had been right. It was a bad dream. Instead of flicking Naruto on the forehead, like Sasuke had originally planned to do, he gently shook Naruto's shoulder.

"Hey, idiot."

Naruto was startled awake. Blue eyes opened and widened. Naruto let his eyes wander for a moment while taking in the environment and remembering where he was. He noted a boy with dark hair standing by his side.

"Sasuke?" he asked sleepily, moving into a sitting position. "Is something wrong?"

Sasuke snorted. "I should ask you that."

"Huh?"

It wasn't until Naruto rubbed his eyes in an attempt to rid himself from his drowsiness that Sasuke's words made sense to him. Naruto noted that his eyes were wet from tears and he was shaking slightly.

"Did you have a bad dream?" Sasuke asked.

"No," Naruto grunted, denying the truth furiously. In reality, he was irritated that Sasuke of all people saw him like this. Naruto didn't want to be seen as coward, because he was anything but that. On the contrary, he was the person to rush into pretty much any situation with a fierce passion, often landing himself in trouble in the process.

Sasuke sighed. "Liar."

"Whatever, man, leave me alone. I'm trying to sleep here." Naruto laid down on side his with his back to Sasuke. Sasuke sighed and went back to his own bed.

Silence filled the room and Sasuke thought he would finally be getting some needed sleep when a familiar voice rang in his ears again.

_You're weak. Why are you so weak? It's because you lack hatred._

Sasuke clenched his teeth in anger and took a deep breath. He shot a new glance at his roommate. Naruto was quite and still now, almost as if he was sleeping, but he was still visibly shaking.

"Naruto?"

"What?"

Sasuke figured maybe Naruto could sleep better if he talked it out. Naruto was usually loud and talkative so maybe that would be a suiting way for him to handle it all. "What was the dream about?"

"I didn't have a bad dream!"

"Yeah, right, so you're shaking with excitement then?" His tone wasn't teasing, mocking or sarcastic even though words were. It was his way of giving Naruto an opening to speak up. He knew Naruto understood that, but his blonde friend was stubborn as usual.

"Shut up, bastard."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. He had tried. If the idiot wanted to be like that, then by all means. It wasn't Sasuke's problem anyway.

Stillness filled the room once more and none of the boys were able sleep. Both of them were just staring into space. After a while, Naruto sat up, pulled his knees up to his chest and curled his arms around them, resting his chin on his knees.

"It's the loneliness that gets to me," he mumbled. "I see all people with their families and friends, but I'm always left behind, watching them. There is always this warmth radiating from them, but I only feel cold because I'm left alone."

Sasuke just listened, not sure what to say. Was there any right thing to say in the first place? But then again, sometimes just transforming emotions and thoughts into words was helpful. For some reason, he didn't want to say the wrong thing either and make Naruto reluctant to be honest in the future. It was one of those special traits the blonde had. He was loud and often spoke in an uncensored manner, but he was honest.

One the other side of the room, Naruto shook his head in an attempt to get rid of his uneasiness. He sighed and lay down again. "Anyway, that's it."

Sasuke understood Naruto perfectly. After all, Sasuke was also an orphan, so he knew all about loneliness. Despite that both of them put up tough exteriors, they were not more than twelve years old, too young to be alone in the world.

Naruto always showed a lot of bravado with a huge smile plastered on his face. Naruto was a cheerful person by nature, but putting up a mask took a lot of effort, so it wasn't strange that it sometimes shattered.

Sasuke didn't blame Naruto. He just closed his eyes and tried to sleep again. The rain continued with its splattering noise. Sasuke grunted and pulled his cover further up to protect himself from the cold. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that Naruto was still shaking. Sasuke deliberated for a moment and came to a decision.

Naruto was wide-awake and couldn't shake the dream off. The voices of the villagers wouldn't stop tormenting his hearing. The things they said were echoing in his head. He was roused from his thoughts by footsteps nearing his bed. He turned his head around and saw Sasuke standing there. The dark-haired boy threw down his pillow next to Naruto's.

"What are you doing?"

"Move over," Sasuke muttered.

"What?"

"Just shut up and do as I say, moron."

Naruto blinked, pretty confused, which made his mind go blank. Normally, he would protest, but he found himself obeying. He moved over and Sasuke crawled down next to him. When he had made himself comfortable, the two boys were laying back to back.

"Hey, man, what's this for?" Naruto asked.

"I can't sleep when you're shaking so much that the bed is moving. You can't possibly feel lonely or cold like this either."

Naruto knew there was more to it than that. Sasuke was doing this for the both of them. Despite the darkness and his own troubles, he had noted how tense his friend was and the look in his dark eyes.

"Need help to sleep, huh?"

"Excuse me?"

The knowing grin on Naruto's face could be heard in his tone when he spoke. "You were brooding, weren't you?"

"How did you . . .?" Sasuke began, but managed to stop himself, not wanting to give himself away. "No, I wasn't!" he exclaimed instead. Naruto had been sleeping all through the night until Sasuke had awoken him. He had had his back to Sasuke the entire time too. How did he know?

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Now who's the liar? It's all you ever do. I saw the look in your eyes and you were as stiff as a board, but you're relaxed now for a change."

Sasuke snorted. "Since when did you get all perceptive?"

Sasuke felt Naruto shrugg. "You're not as hard to figure out as you think, Sasuke. Plus, I know your type. You're like me," Naruto said simply as he gave a huge yawn.

Sasuke grunted and closed his eyes. "If you say as much as one word about tonight to anyone, you're a dead man, Naruto."

Naruto just chuckled softly and let it be. He quickly found himself lulled to sleep by the warmth and he didn't feel lonely anymore.

Sasuke soon also found himself drifting off to sleep. His attention had shifted to helping his friend and it had efficiently drowned out Itachi's words, helping him put his own demons aside if only for a while.

Nothing more needed to be said. The two of them had just made some kind of unspoken agreement, both of them too proud to admit to needing someone else. Tomorrow everything would be like usual, like nothing ever happened. However, it would be a treasured memory that could be pulled out during cold, dark and lonely nights.


End file.
